I want to put together an article of real, bone-chilling, pants-shitting or hilarious "live to tell" short stories. I know some of you out there have some good ones. The trouble is, it's not something you can share under your real identity, or even your screen name, for fear of... I don't know, really. Violation. Embarrassment. Shame.

So send them to me privately. I carry more dark secrets about bent airplanes and chewed seat cushions than most, and I don't tell. I think we could put together a good little collection, as told by pseudonyms. The lessons could save someone's butt.

[email protected]

THAT'S a good idea. I'll buy one.
AK fresh air was good for you!

No worries about violation; they have most all they can take (emergency suspend.) In the fall of 04 I was patroling Sunoco Midwest Pipeline from Longview, Texas to Cincinnati, Ohio for a patrol company that had excellent airplanes by appearance and paperwork with very shoddy maintenance. I had fueled at Longview and was halfway between Shreveport and Homer Louisiana when the top half of the windscreen broke off and blew back into the cockpit injuring my right eye. I headed for Magnolia, Arkansas which was the nearest airport. When I got there, the paint on the bottom cowl had also burned off.

The problem with the windscreen was a long drill stopped crack I couldn't get the company mechanic to sew up with safety wire. The boss would not allow this because of appearance. The problem with the burned cowl was a long crack in the exhaust stack (C-172) that I couldn't get the mechanic to weld because it was too long for a legal weld and wasn't due, budget wise, for a new stack, so nothing. The stack came completely loose at the weld under the carb heat muff. I went a week on one mag for the same reason. Maintenance was budgeted.

To make a long story short, if the windscreen had not blown out, I would have had a fire halfway across northern Louisiana where I most likely would have had to put down on the pipeline right of way in a swamp.

Don't post them in this thread, regardless whether you're worried about your identity or not.

Please email or PM them to me.

Thanks!

You still chasing these mate?

DrifterDriver wrote:You still chasing these mate?

Definitely. Email me a draft if you have something. Shoot for a thousand words and whatever level of detail it takes to make that or more.

Thanks!